'Parinav is Safe': Bengaluru Parents, Good Samaritan on Video Call that Ended 4-Day Search | Exclusive

Please come and pick me up – These five words gave the most amount of relief to Sukesh, the father of missing 12-year-old Parinav from Bengaluru, in four days.

A media professional, Vandana Menon, who was in the city on official work, found Parinav at the Nampally Metro station in Hyderabad around 6:45 am on Wednesday, four days after he went missing from his coaching class in Bengaluru’s Whitefield. He was trying to buy a ticket to LB Nagar.

“Tears were welling up in my eyes when I saw my son, Parinav. He asked me not to worry and requested me to come and pick him up,” Sukesh told News18. “I am yet to ask him how he travelled and survived like that, but we first want our child back home. He is safe with a relative in Hyderabad,” said the father, who was en route to the airport while speaking to News18.

On being questioned about how he was found, the parent explained that Menon, a resident of Prestige Shantiniketan (PSN) community in Bengaluru, spotted him and called him over a video call. She asked him if the child was Parinav, and Sukesh replied in the affirmative.

“He said, “Please come and pick me up.” I could not ask or say anything as I was crying. I wanted to hold him and bring him home. I told the authorities to hand him over to our relative in Hyderabad until we reach there. I am not going to ask him any questions until he is ready to speak,” said the father.

Regarding how the child travelled all the way to Hyderabad using various modes of transport, the parents are still perplexed and said all will be discussed in due course. “I am glad my son is safe. I will give him all the freedom he wants. He can decide whatever he wants to do. If he wants a break, we will support him. We just want to let him know that we are there for him and love him,” Parinav’s mother Nivedita told News18 in an exclusive interview.

GOOD SAMARITAN

News18 also spoke to Vandana Menon, the Good Samaritan who identified Parinav at the Metro station and alerted his parents.

She was on her way to a meeting when she spotted Parinav. “I had to fight back tears as I was happy he was found. I asked him his name, and he said Parinav. That was my first confirmation. I then asked a passenger to call his father’s number as I kept him engaged and made him feel safe. He confidently said he was going to his grandparents’ home,” said Menon.

“The child’s face is imprinted in our minds as we have been constantly receiving updates and checking on his status from our housing complex community groups. So I video-called his father, and once they spoke, I handed him over to the Metro Superintendent, who took the responsibility of handing over the child to the relatives who were to arrive to pick him up,” she said.

The family expressed gratitude, stating that people took Parinav’s missing personally, and hundreds of volunteers, along with the police, helped in the search.

“I want to thank each one of them personally. I do not know how to do it, but my sincere thanks to all,” he added.

THE MASSIVE MANHUNT

A massive manhunt was launched to find Parinav, who went missing on Sunday.

Wearing a yellow T-shirt, dark blue pants, and carrying a school bag with ‘Allen’ written on it, Parinav was spotted behind the BMTC bus stop using the public toilet on Sunday evening. Later, he tried to sell his Parker pen, which is costly, to a person for Rs 50 as he had no money. He was trying to survive by selling his belongings.

The Whitefield Police had formed three teams, and with the help of the CCTV cameras across the city, 24×7 surveillance was maintained to trace him. His photograph was circulated actively across social media groups.

Nivedita also put out a video appeal asking her child to return home and not worry about anything that may have bothered him.